A detailed look at the game of Dungeons & Dragons and all things related

Monday, August 18, 2014

The 5 Cardinal DM Sins (Part 1)

In my article from last week, I mentioned that it was a
Cardinal Sin for DMs to assume that they knew exactly what their players were
going to do at any given time. This got me thinking about all of the Cardinal DM
Sins and so I thought I would outline the top five for you. Now this list is by
no means complete; however, I feel that these five terrible sins are the worst
and should be avoided at all costs. If you are a DM and you recognize that you
have one or more of these issues, you should seek advice from your players or
even other DMs as to how to cure these terrible afflictions.

1.Arrogance
(assuming that your players will always do exactly what you think they will do)

“An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm
of arrogance. It interferes with a person’s main task in life – becoming a
better person.” – Leo Tolstoy

I will begin where I last left
off. Too many DMs, especially the ones who have been playing with the same
group for years, think they can predict down to the last breath how their party
is going to react to any given situation. This problem can present itself on
the DM side of things (i.e. the DM is stuck in a boring routine and is never
prepared for the wacky side-adventures of his/her players when they do happen)
or on the player side of things (i.e. the players never do anything wacky
because they are stuck in a boring roleplaying routine). Both of these
scenarios are unacceptable for all people involved.

One of the foundations of
D&D is how open ended it can be. In fact, I’ll bet that if many of you
recalled your favorite or most funny moment in D&D, it probably came out of
something improvised on the spot. It is that capability for the player and/or
DM to be creative that sets roleplaying apart from every other type of game
available. If you want to just sit on the couch and play a perfectly planned
game with a straight-up plot, there are thousands of console games in which you
can indulge. Go fill your boots! In my opinion, D&D is better because it’s
not “straight-up”.

Thankfully, atoning for this
sin is easy. Firstly, if the problem is with you, the DM, you must always have
a good plan in place as to where you want the campaign to go next and be
prepared for a few side-adventures. There’s nothing wrong with these so long as
you can eventually get back to the main plot. Secondly, if the problem is with
your players, you need to do something unexpected to shake things up. It’s time
to think outside of the box, get out of your comfort zone, and engage in half a
dozen other clichés that gets the group as far away from their normal routine
as possible. It doesn’t have to be long-term or even something so wacky your
players will be wondering if you’ve suddenly become possessed, it does need to
be different and memorable and put the idea into the player’s heads that
something about this campaign is going to be different so they should pay more
attention and take a few more risks than usual. Try your best to find a balance
between your regular game and something totally off the wall.

2.Affluence
(giving away too many items and/or magic with no challenge or consequence)

“He who wants everything every time will
lose everything any time.” – Vikrant Parsai

In many ways, players are like children.
In game you have to teach them values, morals, and show them what their limits
are. Sometimes they should be rewarded, and sometimes they should be punished.
And, just like children, you have to be wary of the trap of spoiling them in an
effort to buy their love or maintain their interest. Keep in mind that there is
a big difference between your players liking you and respecting you.
Personally, I would much rather my players dislike my stingy nature with
rewards and yet respect me as a DM than like me for what I give them and not respect
me as a DM at all.

Spoilt children always expect something
bigger down the line, and spoilt players always expect that their characters
will get better and “cooler” as they grow in levels. How do you expect to
maintain that expectation when you give away most of the cool stuff too early,
or for little effort? And when you fail to meet their expectations down the
road you will find yourself in the very interesting position of having given
away everything the players ever wanted and they still are very displeased with
both you, as the DM, and the campaign in general. Why? Because human nature
dictates that enough is never enough.

To combat this sin, you have to do two
things: 1) Do not give in to the wants of your players just to “keep them
happy”. Giving out rewards or needed items is one thing and handing over +5
armor just because the guy next to you keeps whining about it is another.
Remember that you are the “parent” in this situation and sometimes you have to
put your foot down and make the hard calls. They may not like it but they will
eventually respect you for doing so. 2) Always try to couple risk and reward.
Nothing should come for free in D&D and, if you are inclined to give your
players that +2 sword or a wand of magic missiles, you should make damn sure
they have to work for it. Maybe they have to slay the two-headed Ogre; or find
the well-hidden treasure room in the dungeon; or even save up thousands of gold
pieces from an entire campaign to purchase it from an NPC. However they get
their hands on that “whatever”, make sure that it is a reward and not charity.

Stay tuned
for next week’s article which will have the remaining three Cardinal DM Sins!

1 comment:

In 2.0 (the only one ive played and with like the only character i have ever really played as) I once made my ally blow up and kill a god, which caused all members of the party, except the one who actually did it, to spend 20 yrs (2mnths in real life) im limbo, not as punishment but as a side effect, the punishment wouldnt be considered a punishment by most, ill tell you about it if youd like, but i just ttped it and my phone deleted it all before i could send it lol, so ask if youd like to know more